Star Wars Jedi Power Battles
Developer - LucasArts
Publisher - LucasArts
Directors - Robert Blackadder, Kevin Boyle
Designers - Bill Hennes, Carl Wattenberg, Martin Yee, Michael Licht, Rebecca Perez
Artist - Kevin Boyle, Bill Hennes, Paul Davies
Composers - Music taken from John Williams’ Star Wars score
Genre - Action; Single- and two-player
Dreamcast Release Dates - October 18, 2000 (North America); Not released in other territories
Additional Releases - Sony Playstation (April 2000); Game Boy Advance (2001-2002)
Current Average Price - $34
Star Wars Episode I : Jedi Power Battles was made by LucasArts for the Sony Playstation and released in April of the year 2000. It was also released some months later on the SEGA Dreamcast with updated visuals, a higher (60 FPS) framerate, and other minor additions. Thus, the SEGA Dreamcast version of Jedi Power Battles is the best version that exists. That said, the best version of a stubbed toe is still mostly undesirable.
But I’m being unfair. Jedi Power Battles isn’t as bad a stubbed toe. It’s just not a very good game. And though I enjoyed it quite a bit when I was 16 years old, riding high on a wave of enthusiasm following the release of Star Wars Episode I : The Phantom Menace, I can’t say with confidence that I’ll ever play the game again following my hour-long recording session for my Let’s Play video that I made last week.
What is Jedi Power Battles
Very quickly, Jedi Power Battles is a one- or two-player hack and slash action platformer in which the player controls one of a number of Jedi from Episode I of the Star Wars prequels. The player fights through waves and waves of droids and enemies (both recognizable and unrecognizable as Star Wars character - where’d that maggot come from?) across a range of environments from the movie on which the game is based.
There’s Force moves, Jar Jar Binks, Darth Maul, and plenty more Episode I nostalgia strings to be plucked. Even Yoda makes an appearance.
But in the end, the game’s pretty rough. The controls are floaty and unresponsive, the enemy AI (if we can call it Artificial Intelligence) is pathetic and biased toward unfair enemy advantage, the sound design is terrible (John Williams’ score is just constantly screaming at full volume despite what’s happening on screen), and the combat makes the player feel as though the character that we’re controlling is a toddler with a pool noodle, rather than a Jedi with a lightsaber.
Jedi Power Battles is a fun romp for nostalgia’s sake, but it’s not a game one should lust after or pay a premium to own. If you find a copy for cheap, pick it up. Otherwise, as the stormtooper’s of old said, “Move along. Move along.”